Maria Popova: "Great stories, like great life-stories, are woven of the same interplay between fertile ennui and surmountable frustration — so argues writer Peter Turchi in one especially rewarding section of the altogether stimulating A Muse and a Maze: Writing as Puzzle, Mystery, and Magic (public library | IndieBound)."

One of the exciting gifts of the rising popularity of gaming and, by extension, game design is the increased visibility and appreciation of relationships among user experience, psychology and narrative. This creates a broader understanding of the need for psych theories, like Flow, in thinking about and designing media and technology (#mediapsych). As this excellent article illustrates, Flow, like narrative, is based on the fundamental push/pull of energy in every experience, the inherent conflict that moves life forward. Flow is a masterful model of how this balance translates into psychological engagement.

One of the worst kept secrets in recent history was finally unveiled last Friday when Amazon announced their Kindle Unlimited program. It has the potential to become yet another terrific service for consumers but many publishers and authors are less...

Despite areas where traditional publishers are seeking outside support and the plethora of start-ups emerging to provide it, partnerships between the two remain limited. If it stays that way, publishers may ultimately have more to lose.

The infographic has become an important weapon for publishers as they seek to share sometimes complex messages about their brand in a simple way. We give our five top tips to creating impressive infographics.

Amazon's announcement on Tuesday of its new Matchbook offer, allowing customers to buy discounted digital versions of print books they’d previously bought from the retailer, is far from the first attempt to bring bundling to publishing. As Peter Hudson, CEO of BitLit was quick to point out, his start-up has been offering something rather similar for a while now, and the impressive results Osprey imprint Angry Robot achieved with a trial administered in partnership with independent bookstores have already been documented here.

Amazon's announcement on Tuesday of its new Matchbook offer, allowing customers to buy discounted digital versions of print books they’d previously bought from the retailer, is far from the first attempt to bring bundling to publishing. As Peter Hudson, CEO of BitLit was quick to point out, his start-up has been offering something rather similar for a while now, and the impressive results Osprey imprint Angry Robot achieved with a trial administered in partnership with independent bookstores have already been documented here. - See more at: http://www.futurebook.net/content/two-and-half-thoughts-amazons-matchbook#sthash.QSbLnJSy.dpuf

In an interview, Javier Sepúlveda Hales of Ebooks Patagonia describes how his digital-only publishing company in Chile competes in Latin America and globally.

Gabriela Dias's insight:

"The only way forward for an independent Latin American publishing company when competing with a mega publishing corporation is the ebook," says Javier Sepúlveda Hales of Ebooks Patagonia. // Right on!

As the publishing industry continues to fragment into an increasing number of independents (and a shrinking number of giants), there’s growing opportunity in connecting those indies with the publishing pros they need to get their books to market. Blurb is seizing on that opportunity today with the launch of a new marketplace. It’s called Dream Team, and Blurb has recruited industry veterans Molly Barton and Richard Nash to run it.

Adobe has let it known that they will be coming up with the technical specifications of .folio format for e-magazines under free license sometime in Q1 2014. An inherent benefit of the .folio format is that it will allow newsstands to launch their own viewing apps for users to read digital magazines that have been built using Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite. This, Adobe claims will lead to greater acceptance of digital magazines published using Adobe DPS which has already seen three times the growth achieved in 2013 as it has been the year before it.

E-books may now outsell mass market paperbacks, but successfully selling digital editions of novels and other text-centric titles is only the first phase of a profound transformation of all segments of the traditional book publishing business.

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